Faith or Insanity?
What separates the great heroes of the faith from those who got it wrong?
by Nadia Bolz-Weber
Old Testament Reading: Genesis 15:1-6
For Sunday, August 8, 2010: Year C – Ordinary 19
It can be difficult to think of our beloved Bible characters in new ways. I mean, once they are emblazoned into our imaginations in their flannel-graph, or Bible coloring book or children’s sermon form, they become calcified. And not just in that “Oh…you mean Mary Magdalene wasn’t a prostitute” way. Abram, for example, is a hero of the faith. We all know this, but talk about emblazoned!
Hold that Pose
In the high school musical TV series Glee, Sue, the pernicious cheerleading coach, often repeats a demeaning question, changing it to suit circumstance: “You think holding that painful pose for 15 minutes is Hard? Try living with hepatitis. That’s hard!”
So you think asking “what if Abram wasn’t really faithful?” is hard? Others besides Abram have believed beyond reason. Other people have also held on to some sort of trust in a promise despite there being no indication whatsoever that its fulfillment is even within the realm of possibility. Other people have also had a faith in something despite the reality surrounding them, despite every indication otherwise. Some of these people become heroes of the faith and great prophets. But try asking “what if Abram’s faith is not any different than David Koresh’s faith?” That’s hard.
Crazy Like?
Abram looked with his elderly eyes to the multitude of stars in the sky and believed God’s promise of progeny. But some of these people who believe crazy stuff with all their hearts die castrated in Texas bunk beds wearing white Nikes while the Hale-Bopp comet streaks by a sky filled with countless stars.
How can we know if we are crazy like Noah, or crazy like Jim Jones? Well, you say, Noah was right. Fine.
But what separates the great heroes of the faith from those who got it wrong? Chance? Accident of history? Truth? The fact is that both Noah and David Koresh claimed that God had given them special instructions for the future of humankind. On this side of history one guy is a hero and one guy is a whacko.
The Hardest Question
Perhaps we preachers of the Word might do well to realize that these questions are real and addressing them is not the same as endorsing them. Asking the question, this hardest question, is critical: Is it faith or insanity?
The faith is crazy. I just think there’s something beautiful and redemptive and true in owning up to it, rather than trying to pretend this thing is a perfectly rational thing to be a part of. It’s not.
Thanks be to God.
Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber is the founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado. She is the author of Salvation on the Small Screen? 24 Hours of Christian Television (Seabury, 2008) and blogs at www.sarcasticlutheran.com and Jim Wallis’ www.GodsPolitics.com. Nobody really believes she’s an ordained pastor in the ELCA. Maybe it’s the sleeve tattoos or the fact that she swears like a truck driver. Either way…she’s fine with it. Nadia lives in Denver with her family of four.
…and blogs at http://www.sarcasticlutheran.com and Jim Wallis’ http://www.GodsPolitics.com. …
The links above do not work.
Regards
August 2nd, 2010 at 8:48 amBryan
Interestingly, the links in my comment above do work. What’s up with that?
August 2nd, 2010 at 8:50 amSo what was the craziest part for Abram? Walking the first mile out of Ur? Admitting to Sarah that he nearly killed their beloved son? Recognizing that while he had seen much “from afar” he, too, would die before all the promises he was so keen on came to fruition? There’s more than one kind of craziness to this Christian way. What’s the biggest crazy: the first step of discipleship, truth-telling in community, or mortality before we are done with our dreams? Thanks for your good work.
August 4th, 2010 at 6:45 pm@Peregrin,
August 5th, 2010 at 7:52 am“The Biggest Crazy” should be a new reality show. Perhaps of church planters.
Like the idea. Talk sparkhouse into sponsoring. Couple of 24/7 webcams and the whole world will be watching.
August 5th, 2010 at 8:35 amI just found this site and have fallen in love with it! Thanks for the fresh approach to the timeless word! It is just what I needed.
August 5th, 2010 at 1:55 pmJeff
I think I am going to ask my congregation to share the craziest thing they have ever done because of thier faith…. pick up hitch hiker? give money? touch a person with AIDS? stand up for justice? Actually believe in tomarrow?
August 5th, 2010 at 2:03 pmTo believe that God is in ‘the other’ as well as, inside me. Crazy! I think the differece between the wackosand the heros is the outcome of the action. the what of what is called to us…which is to love and bless the world regardless of it’s insanity… to actually believe we are loved…then what do we do with that, in a world where comptetition, human valuelessness, unrighteousness, not believing God loves us, actually extists… a good film ‘In the realms of the unreal’. this guy wrestled in his own way with evil and good and how both can exist while believing in God. In his world…the vivian girsl were God’s love…that’s what I see…he used his imagination…to help him to the love…The shit that happens to a person and how our weak mind can break to the pressures of pure hell on earth. How in the midst of hell, can we still love or at least believe in God’s love…crazy
August 7th, 2010 at 10:00 amGlad you appreciate the site, Jeff. THQ’s only a month old so anything you can do to spread the word would be great! Thanks!
August 10th, 2010 at 5:12 pmNadia,
August 14th, 2010 at 1:13 pmGood questions. Seems to me that faith (wherever that means) always removes the ego from the equation. For Abram, it was all about God. For Jim Jones it was all about Jim Jones. As Richard Rohr says: “faith is more how to believe than what to believe”.
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